Dana: Aldo is refusing to fight Pettis

I just think Lamas and TKZ don't have enough name recognition. Pettis and Aldo would just draw better, which s probably what happened to Hendricks as well.

I get that, and your're absolutely right. It's just hypocritical when not to long ago the UFC was all about "being taken seriously as a legitimate sport" and now they're pulling sh*t like this that makes them look more like the WWE.

And it's also hypocritical to be more worried about who will draw better instead of who deserves it more when Dana always loves to tell us how huge the UFC is and how great they're doing all over the world. If you're really raking in that much cash and you're the hottest ticket all over the face of planet Earth, you shouldn't be hurting for those extra 100k PPV buys that Pettis might get you over what Lamas might have gotten you.

You're either a business based on entertainment looking to make as much cash as you can, or you're a legitimate sporting company. Which one is it? The NFL doesn't send the loser of the AFC championship game to the Super Bowl because they think they'll draw better than the team that won. And the NFL is the greediest, most money hungry organization there is.

Pettis was guaranteed a shot at 155 and would honestly probably get it before his fight with Aldo, so I'm not sure why he's so gung ho on dropping.

Melendez fights Henderson on April 20th. Which leaves exactly 15 weeks until the August 3rd fight of Pettis/Aldo. Only one time in UFC lightweight history was the belt defended back to back in 15 weeks. At UFC 33, Jens Pulver beat Dennis Hallman (Sept 28th, 2001) and 105 days later, exactly 15 weeks to the day, L'il Evil beat BJ Penn to retain the lightweight title at UFC 35 (Jan 11th, 2002).

So if we ignore the big gaps where there was no lightweight champion (after Pulver and Sherk were stripped of their titles and the gap after the Penn/Uno draw), the average turnaround time between lightweight title fights is 26 weeks. The median is 19 weeks.

Which means the next lightweight champion match after Bendo/Gil fight on April 20th will mostly likely take place on August 31st, 2013 at the earliest and could be as late as October 19th, 2013. With marketing and promotional lead times being what they are, there's almost no chance of a title fight before August 31st.

So Pettis has two choices;

1) Guaranteed fight for the featherweight title on August 3rd.

2) A possible lightweight title fight in September or October. Provided there are no injuries and hoping to hell the result of the April 20th title fight isn't similar to the last time - another draw. Or perhaps some controversial stoppage. Basically some sort of title shot deferring circumstance that bones Pettis again.

Seems to me that getting Aldo on August 3rd is Showtime's best, most realistic title fight opportunity in the shortest amount of time.

Heck, provided he wins and doesn't get hurt on August 3rd, he could conceivable challenge for the lightweight title on December 14th, 19 weeks after his featherweight win. That's 34 weeks between LW titles - long but not outside the realm of possibility.

Truthfully, I think that's highly unlikely. There's enough talent at the top of LW, barring injury, that they'll have a LW title fight scheduled before August 3rd. No way they'll hold up LW for Pettis - someone else will get the nod.

Aldo doesn't get to pick his fight. If the PRESIDENT of the organization thinks someone deserves it, guess what, they do.

The "President" cares mostly about money and how much he can make. Don't get me wrong Dana puts his heart in MMA but his main goal is to make money not pair up people who deserve it. Look at Jones/Sonnen or GSP/Diaz......it's about the money. The President doen't really think they deserve it, all he's seeing is $$$. Don't kid yourself.

The "President" cares mostly about money and how much he can make. Don't get me wrong Dana puts his heart in MMA but his main goal is to make money not pair up people who deserve it. Look at Jones/Sonnen or GSP/Diaz......it's about the money. The President doen't really think they deserve it, all he's seeing is $$$. Don't kid yourself.

I agree. It's a business. But in this fight the challenger is actually very capable of beating the champ. Aldos camp is just doing what EVERY champ has been doing. But I think he may be genuinely worried about this fight, Pettis is in beast mode right now. I'll take Pettis all day in that fight.

If someone is basically in position for a title shot in their division, but feels dropping down is smarter, I'm OK with them getting a quick shot or even instant title shot. That doesn't bother me too much.
(I know Pettis is lean as is, but I've been personally rooting for him to drop down if it was possible)

It's not hard to see why Aldo doesn't want to fight Pettis though. Maybe he truly believes that Pettis doesn't deserve it, but Pettis is also a huge threat to Aldo as well. That has to play some sort of role.

It's all a ploy.... I'm dubbing it " A Brazilian Buy-Back." They say the person is a great fighter, would love to fight them because they want nothing but big fights, get everybody all hyped for the fight then a few weeks later they make a big stink about fighting somebody they " deem " unworthy, not a big enough name etc.... then the UFC tosses more and more money at them because the fans start flooding the social sites demanding the fight and then all off a sudden, the Brazilian dude feels the person is a " big enough " challenge, worthy and most important, they dont want to " disappoint " the fans. Voilà, The infamous " Brazilian Buy-Back."